"Midmost blotch of black
Discernible in the group of clustered crimes
Huddling together in the cave they call
Their palace."B
B: The Ring and the Book—The Pope, 869-872.
Beside him are his brothers, each with his own "tint of hell"; his mistress, on whose face even Pompilia saw the glow of the nether pit "flash and fade"; and his mother—
"The gaunt grey nightmare in the furthest smoke,
The hag that gave these three abortions birth,
Unmotherly mother and unwomanly